Retellings, Intertexts, Symbionts, Signifying, and Parodies: a few examples
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Snow White, revisited cartoon by Roz Chast, |
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Marie de France, Laüstic / Suzanne Kocher, Le
Laustic, 2000 [to come]
A retelling of Sir Thomas Malory's "Fair Maid of Astolat': Keith Jordan, "Paper Ships in Icy Waters"
The Middle English lyric, "Sumer is icumen in" (13th c.) and its modern versions
William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 / Howard Moss parody
Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" / Anthony Hecht, "Dover Bitch"
Gone
With the Wind / The Wind Done Gone
Beauty
and the Beast: cinema, TV, and cartoon
Visual symbiosis
1) Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel (1508-12), and allusions thereto
2) Sir Thomas Malory's "Fair Maid of Astolat"
redux: John William
Waterhouse, The Lady of Shallot (1888) . . . Hollywood
Artist Brett-Livingstone Strong casts Michael Jackson in the
role of the Lady . . . Remedios Varo's multiple Ladies in Bordando
el Manto Terrestre/Embroidering Earth's Mantle (1961)
3) The cult actor-tranvestite, Divine, and the Witch-Octopus
from Disney's The Little Mermaid:
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Musical Symbiosis, or Sampling
Sometimes musicians take someone else's melody and set words to it, as in 60s comedian Allan Sherman's plaint about summer camp, "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter From Camp)" set to Amilcare Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" (remember the dancing hippopotami in Fantasia?) and The Toy's 60s hit, "A Lover's Concerto," set to a minuet from Bach's Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach.
Plagiarism? George Harrison was sued for "My Sweet Lord," too close, the courts decided, to the Chiffon's "He's So Fine" (compare here). 2 Live Crew recorded Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman," but the courts ruled that their version was a parody, and therefore fair use (visit a 2 Live Crew site for the story, and compare).
Sound-alikes: The Door's "Hello, I Love You," < The Kinks' "All of the Day and All of the Night." Prince's "Little Red Corvette" < Jay and the Americans' "Living above Your Head." Weezer's "Hashpipe" < "Strange Brew." The Spin Doctor's "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" < Steve Miller's "Jet Airliner."
And, of course, a new genre has developed in pop, hip-hop, and alternative music: many musicians (or DJs) take a piece of recorded music (and may or may not electronically alter it) and incorporate it into their own music/others' music, as in the case of Eddie Money's use of Ronnie Spector singing "Be My Baby" in "Take Me Home Tonight." Also: Run D.M.C. teamed up with Aerosmith to produce "Walk This Way"--a 70s hit for Aerosmith revitalized by association with 80s hip-hop. Vanilla Ice sampled Queen's "Under Pressure" (with David Bowie), in "Ice Ice Baby"; M.C. Hammer sampled Rick James' "Superfreak," in "You Can't Touch This"; Queen Latifah rapped over David Bowie's "Fame" in her "Fame."
Musicians may also quote a line or two of someone else's lyrics, or a riff or a melody, as in the case of 2 Live Crew invoking Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" in "Banned in the USA," the song that they wrote after winning a censorship case in Florida, or Soft Cell singing a piece of the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" in "Tainted Love" (itself a cover of an obscure soul song by Gloria Jones). More recently, LFO sings a line from KC and the Sunshine Band's "That's the Way (I Like It)" in "Every Other Time."
Is permission necessary? Is this flattery? Or stealing?
A "thesaurus"
of sound: Where to go when you know you've heard it before
. . .
MACOS: Musicians Against Copyrighting Samples
Please email me! k.kelly@neu.edu
. . . And Finally, a New World View: The Peters Projection Map
